Fragmented
by Kathrine
Summary: 50 sentence fic from the same 'verse as 'Menage' and 'Red Skies'. G1 AU, human-centric. The Autobots lay sleeping and the Decepticons rule the Earth in their ongoing quest for amassing Energon. Yet, even though much of the human race remain enslaved by their alien oppressors, some have slipped through the cracks and live on in their ruined cities, running and hiding but still free.


**A/N: **Theme set 9 from 1fandom on LJ. (Not officially claimed as the comm seems dead anyways .;;) The sentences are random bits spanning a period of 2 years and are not chronological. **These do contain spoilers for later installments of this series**. Also, I abuse semi-colons and sentence structure horribly ahaha oops.

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**01. Crave**  
Mikaela has been craving chocolate in the worst way; when Sam finally manages to find some in an abandoned grocery store and presents it to her, she falls upon it like a starving woman and gives him an enthusiastic (and chocolaty) kiss as a reward.

**02. None**  
The aliens often seem like a distant concern in comparison to the everyday worries of the growing scarcity food and shelter and protecting what little they can find from other humans who have none, but Chip can't forget the terror of a gigantic, gleaming metal body and terrible red eyes that glinted malevolently in the night.

**03. Glue**  
Their world has been shattered beyond repair and no amount of glue could ever stick it back together again the way it was…but they have hope that someday they might be able to make something new out of the pieces.

**04. Wet**  
The rain is coming down in full force outside and Sari lets out a whoop and grabs a black poncho while Sam grumbles to Mikaela ("But baby, it's _cold _outside") and Raoul grins wryly, remembering in days Before when he hated rainy days; now, they're grateful for the respite from solar-powered surveillance.

**05. Fame**  
"Your granddaddy was famous, kid," Simmons says, grinning nastily (Sam takes a step back despite himself, grabbing for Alexis' hand discreetly and sure it's anything but) "now are you gonna come along quietly, or do we have to get uncivilized about this?"

**06. Instant**  
Sam crows with delight and brandishes his prize from the next aisle over; Alexis rolls her eyes at him with a muttered "they're just instant noodles, jeez."

**07. Hold**  
Mikaela breaks the man-height robot's hold with practiced precision; it reels back, seemingly surprised, and she takes her chance to kick it's knee joints out while Raoul comes forward with a demented grin and a can of spray paint.

**08. Fish**  
"Didn't anyone teach you how to fish," Sam says, surprised, and Raoul just shrugs and grins; his old man was never really one for being out in nature, after all, preferring to be up to his elbows in tech guts.

**09. Don't**  
The first time Raoul mockingly answers Chip with "yes, dad," Chip blinks in surprise and can't help the rush of startled pleasure; Alexis notices and smiles at him even as she tells Raoul "don't be ridiculous!"

**10. Ego**  
Chip worries sometimes that he can't give these kids what they need as he's only seventeen himself and they are all so very young; he tries anyways, mediating disputes and doing his best to ground them all in a rapidly shifting world.

**11. Flow**  
Alexis watches the banks of the Mississippi quickly slide past them as their little boat carries them further down the river and, to the surprise of everyone (including herself), says impulsively "wouldn't it be cool if we could follow the river all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico?"

**12. Dream**  
Their dreams are full of red eyes gleaming in the dark and huge, unstoppable feet that stomp horribly towards them, but when Sari determinedly pulls them all down to sleep in a heap together, scornful of propriety, they notice after the first full night with no one waking up screaming that the dreams are like bullies: they flee in the face of a united front.

**13. Action**  
"I am a man of action," Sam boasts as the file downloads on to his battered laptop, "and very fast fingers, just let me log out and cut the connection; and then we can start with the running for our lives just in case our alien overlords get curious."

**14. Enough**  
"Are you kids getting enough to eat, at least," Lennox demands and Sam winces to hear the almost desperate ring to his voice, but Mikaela is pulling him away, her nails digging into his arm; they dare not trust anyone or anything other than themselves, even the seeming sincerity that Lennox offers with open hands.

**15. Green**  
The evergreens rise up around them, tall and unchanging, and Chip briefly toys with the idea of staying out here forever; maybe the Robots wouldn't find them here in this pine-scented sanctuary.

**16. Metaphor**  
Freedom is what they live for, fight for, _breathe _for: it's Chip's quiet, calm reminder to be careful out there and Sari's exuberant tackle-hug from above and Alexis' warm, wry smile and Raoul's bright laughter and Sam's awkward attempts at gallantry; Mikaela clings to it fiercely, tightly, and challenges anything that would seek to take it (take _them_) away from her.

**17. Teach**  
Even in the midst of their frantic struggle for survival Chip finds the time and patience to teach them, and they can only repay him by learning.

**18. Demand**  
"No, seriously," Sam demands, "where are you even _finding _those things," and Raoul shrugs, gripping yet another can of spray paint with practiced ease; "when you're this good," he says, "stuff just comes to you, man."

**19. Inspire**  
Sari hunts the ruined cities for anything mechanical she can get her hands on and faithfully brings every piece she can carry back to Chip, demanding he show her how everything works; her hunger for knowledge only inspires him to get more creative, and together they take the scattered and broken remains and build them anew.

**20. Unrequited**  
Their crimes go unrequited, but someday, they vow, the Giant Robots will pay for all the lives they've taken.

**21. Classic**  
Raoul moans low in his throat at the flattened frame of the old Corvette Stingray that he'd been working on for _years_, now totaled from a piece of concrete that had smashed through its once shiny blue roof; he touches its bumper with reverent hands and barely hears Mikaela promise "we'll get you a new one" with her arm around his shoulder; and anyways, they both know that such dreams are for the far-off tomorrow and not the nitty-gritty world of today.

**22. Far**  
Driving – especially in the bright summer sunshine – seems suicidal when one of Them can fly over at anytime but they have far to go and very little time left as Sari seems to fade further with every mile, her skin flushed and her breathing labored; Raoul grits his teeth and steps on the gas.

**23. May**  
_"Come what may_," Sam sings, his voice off-key and screechy; Raoul throws his shoe at him while the girls giggle hysterically.

**24. Breadth**  
They have crossed the length and breadth of what was once the continental United States; Sari says feelingly that she knows it to the soles of her feet (they _ache_).

**25. Wrench**  
They all have their mementos of Before: Mikaela's is a beat-up old wrench that she keeps in a holster strapped to her thigh; it was her father's and she plans to return it to him, someday.

**26. Hope**  
All of them have given in to crushing despair at one time or another but Sari; they all hope that she will always keep the bright spark of hope safe within her young heart, no matter what.

**27. Scent**  
The smell of baking bread nearly makes Sam swoon, and it's all Mikaela can do to drag him along away from it; "We're not staying," she hisses, and he gazes longingly after the neat little row of temporary housing from which the scent emanates.

**28. Pastel**  
They find an untouched box of pastels in the wreckage of a school and Sari quickly commandeers them; she spends the night sketching their portraits in the bright colors "for remembrance" and Chip proclaims the pictures better than any photos a camera could take.

**29. Artist**  
Each night Alexis paints pictures for them out of a thousand words tumbling from her lips; it is an artistry that none of them expect (much less herself).

**30. Sorrow**  
They bury him in a shallow grave on the outskirts of town quickly before moving on; they can't stop with the robots so close behind but they carry their grief with them, tight and sharp like jagged bits of rock gouging their hearts.

**31. Path**  
Occasionally they'll paddle down a river in liberated skiffs or canoes, rarely they'll risk a car down seldom-used back roads, and on one memorable occasion they hooked up an old wagon to a couple of bikes and towed Chip and his wheelchair with a pile of supplies; but mostly they walk, their feet (and wheels) following wide interstates and tiny paths with a surety that grows over the months they travel together, rarely settling down roots anywhere for very long.

**32. Wood**  
They come across a town utterly demolished, once, with its houses knocked down like the Big Bad Wolf had come along and huffed and puffed them all down into large piles of kindling; they carefully skirt the wood and glass scattered along the cracked roads and camp out in a solid and sturdy cave just outside of town, instead.

**33. Acceptance**  
Mikaela faces their would-be 'family' with fire in her eyes and says, slowly, deliberately, "Chip is not a useless burden; if you can't accept that, you're not worth our time."

**34. Yet**  
"Are we there yet," Raoul calls out from the back of the line as they trudge up the I-15, barely an hour out of Salt Lake City; Alexis chucks a rock at him and he dodges, laughing, still full of the itchy, nervous energy they all have at the beginning of a long journey.

**35. Shiver**  
Winter announces its arrival with a cold, icy wind that steals through the walls of their current home and Alexis shivers despite the blankets heaped around and on top of them; she burrows deeper under Chip's arm, tangles her fingers with Mikaela's, and tucks her cold feet into the small of Sam's back, grinning to herself at his indignant yelp.

**36. Hero**  
Alexis wraps the bandage around his arm with sharp, jerky movements and Raoul winces despite himself; she gives him a Look and snipes, "Do you _always _have to be such a hero?"

**37. Body**  
Chip cocks the gun, his aim steady, and smiles at the haggard-looking man who thinks he can burst in and threaten his family; "my legs might not work," he says coolly, "but my arms are just fine and my aim is pretty good; please remove yourself from the premises or this might get a little messy for you."

**38. Man**  
The broken, near-empty cities are proof that Man is no longer master of the Earth; this truth burns them like a brand and drives them to further acts of rebellion rather than beats them down as the Robots undoubtedly expect it to: they will not go quietly into the night (they will _survive_).

**39. Pretend**  
Sometimes they pretend it all never happened and tell each other of what they'd be doing now; Sam is surprisingly the most adept at this game to the point where he is visibly dejected when they all have to return to reality and Mikaela and Raoul have to shove him out of his sulk.

**40. Curious**  
Sari, her eyes wide and curious, places her hands on Sam's knees and leans in toward him with a bright smile and a question: "So…where _do _babies come from?"

**41. Different**  
Of _course _Sari knows where babies come from (she's already seven years old, after all, and she'll be eight in a few more months) but Sam likely doesn't know that she knows; from the panicked expression on his face when she asks, she knows that he doesn't know any different and she strives to keep down the snicker that's trying desperately to escape her closed, smiling lips.

**42. Smooth**  
The night closes around them in a dark cloak of quietude as they slip out over the smooth surface of Lake Michigan in stolen canoes; the muted slap of water against their oars is the only sound, the stars and moon hanging from the black canvas of the sky the only light: their home, once bright and lively, now stands dark on the lakefront, its lights extinguished and its bustle ground down to the muted moans of a dying city.

**43. Right**  
When they pause at a crossroads, Mikaela spreads the map across her knees and closes her eyes; she lets her finger fall where it will and lets chance plot their journey onwards with no regrets as she opens her eyes, smiles, and announces a confident "right".

**44. Damn**  
They're hungry and scared and _so damn tired _of running, but they haven't been caught yet, and that makes all the difference.

**45. Desire**  
There's grease on her hands and blood dripping down his arm but none of it matters because she's kissing him long and deep – and oh God, he's wanted this for so long, if he'd known he'd only needed to get nearly killed for it to happen he would have done it long ago – and he can barely hear Alexis coming up behind them with the promised first aid kit because Mikaela's lips are on his and he never wants this to end ("Hey, Sam, I brought the – oh for the love of – Sari, cover your eyes, you're way too young for this—" "Ewww she's got her tongue in his mouth—" "Woo hoo, you go Mikki—") and he feels Mikaela starting to shake with laughter through the kiss and for a moment he really hates his friends.

**46. Ritual**  
Every time they set up in a new place, Alexis lights a single candle for their first night and sets it in the window, singing softly to herself; after awhile, Sari learns the chorus and sings along: "_what a bright world this would be!_"

**47. Color**  
The world ends on a beautiful May afternoon: the sun slants golden through the window to creep across the pages of her textbook as Alexis quietly studies and she barely gives notice to the dull roar of jets overhead; however, the deafening _boom _of the bombs exploding within the distant city center gets her attention, _fast_.

**48. Visit**  
When they finally reach the Oregon coast, Sam piles rocks together into a rough cairn on the beach and closes his eyes to send out a message to the cousin and uncle who had lost their lives: "I can't visit long here but I swear I'll avenge you, no matter what."

**49. Belong**  
Sari and Alexis have been spending the better part of an hour putting together a puzzle they'd found, slotting in pieces neatly where they belong; Sam thinks in a moment of whimsy that their little band is like the puzzle: broken, but slowly being pieced together by careful hands.

**50. Bully**  
Raoul faces down the big man with nothing more than a devil-may-care smile and a can of spray paint; when it's over, his friends aren't surprised to see him the victor.

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**Notes: **So funny story: When I was writing 'Red Skies' I realized about halfway through (after, of course, I researched Chicago's school system, driving laws, neighborhoods and general geography) that I had originally planned to base the kids in Detroit. I have no idea how I shifted to Chicago; maybe I just went 'CITY ON A GREAT LAKE' and ran with it? (Although I suppose it's lucky they didn't end up in Toronto, then...) IN ANY CASE I decided to stick with Chicago after all rather than dump all that research.

I have no idea how Sam got so many of these. I think it's because I like picking on him. He squeaks so well! Hacker!Sam is entirely fandom, I admit, but it was a concept that worked well for what I want to do with this story, so. Techgenius!Sari is my translation of Sari's magic key. RaoulxSpraypaint is my OTP 5eva.


End file.
